It seems very strange to make a case for hugging after all, hugging has become deeply fashionable. It’s viewed as an expansive alternative to the handshake, intended to suggest a flatteringly warm-blooded informality. Like a peck on both cheeks, a hug is now something you can do at the office or with someone you’re only meeting for the second time. In other words it’s grown into a sentimental token of chumminess, that means more or less nothing. Which is a pity because in its essence, hugging is of deep and poignant significance.